


Winged Foils

by ouvertes



Category: Monsta X (Band)
Genre: Angst and Humor, Demons, Gen, M/M, and also wonkyun as sweethearts you wish you could protect from the world, broken! wonkyun, enemies to friends! wonkyun, mentions of depression and anxiety, minor first person pov, office in hell au, wonkyun as assholes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-29
Updated: 2017-10-29
Packaged: 2019-01-22 04:52:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12473896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ouvertes/pseuds/ouvertes
Summary: Demon Wonho is paired with his one-sided rival I.M on their next mission to torture a couple of humans by the names of Hoseok and Changkyun.





	Winged Foils

**Author's Note:**

  * For [o_n_off](https://archiveofourown.org/users/o_n_off/gifts).



> Happy Halloween, requester! I took [this](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/54/81/51/548151a548f4f445306afc4472c777b7--creative-writing-writing-ideas.jpg) prompt and went nuts, as you suggested. Enjoy!

The office corridor echoed with the click-clack of Wonho’s angry footsteps. He was asked to meet with his superior. _Again._

Wonho was proud of his job. He might actually be one of the few employees who genuinely enjoyed their work at the Center for Thought Manipulation, a division of Karmic Enterprises. So he takes longer to complete his missions than other professional mental demons, but that’s because perfection takes _time_. Since when had this industry started placing quantity over quality of work, anyway?

As if they were _guardian angels_ , he scoffed at the idea.

Why, mental demons were the complete opposite. Those guardian angels, being the loud and pretentious show-offs they were, had made humans fully aware of their existence over the years. But their counterparts? Now, mental demons were low-key. No extravagant displays of substandard work, thank you very much. Mental demons liked to get their hands dirty, working side-by-side with their client to get the punishments they were allotted.

And Wonho, being one of the few mental demons who took utmost care with his clients, was now in trouble for doing his job _well_? If his superior was going to give him a talking then Wonho was going to give him a piece of his own mind back.

 

 

☽☾

 

 

“No. I will _not_ work with him.”

Shownu slowly put down his chocolate éclair, brushed off the crumbs on his desk, and looked up at Wonho with feigned interest.

“Oh really, now?”

“Really,” Wonho crossed his arms to show he really meant it. It was about time he stopped throwing himself around like a ragdoll at the mercy of headquarters.

“How did I get put together with him? Of all demons.”

Shownu starred at Wonho wordlessly and the latter swore he saw a faint tuft of smoke coming out of his boss’s ears.

“Of all demons?” Shownu’s eyebrows furrowed that Famous Furrow. “Of all demons, I.M is currently holding the record for quickest karma points turnaround in the last three decades. Of all demons, _Wonho_ , you will be more than thankful to learn from the swiftest punishers in the business, rather than taking the usual overtime to hand out the negatives.”

“Look here, from the outside it may seem that I’m delaying the punishments, but there’s a method to my madness-”

“Some method, you’re simply mad," to which the other rolled his eyes. "If I didn’t know you better, I’d have transferred you to upstairs years ago.”

“How _dare_ you call me an angel,” Wonho huffed, extending his pitch black wings to their fullest extent. “I can report you to HR for this gross misconduct.”  

Shownu put his hands up in surrender. “Hey, I’m sorry but I’m just laying it out as I see it. But I know you, Wonho,” his remark was followed by an exasperated snort. “You’ve got something in you to keep you here. And I’m going to try my damn hardest to get it out.”

“Fine, whatever. But only in the condition that I get a hundred of those éclairs.”

 

 

☽☾

 

 

I.M was looking forward to working with Wonho, to be quite honest.

He dismissed the telepathic notification of his next mission with a smile. The guy was well-known in his circles to have a rather unconventional streak when punishing. While that turned up a lot of the more experienced noses, he was an unspoken role model to the younger employees.

Or that was the hushed talk, anyway. Nobody dared to utter any of those compliments at Wonho, himself, lest his unconventionally big ideas further balloon his unconventionally big head.

Wonho kept his office an uncomfortable warm, well above the usual cold frigid that was standard practice throughout Karmic Enterprises. I.M lightly coughed, loosening his tie at the stifle.

Wonho swiveled his chair around in grandiose fashion. “Ah, so you have arrived.”

I.M bowed deeply, then nodded his head up towards a split-screen hologram in front of Wonho, which displayed two humans going about their day.

“So these are our two clients, huh? I’ve already read up on them a bit, but-“

“Wait, you were given the mission report already?” Wonho spun towards him, indignant. “I _implored_  Shownu that I won’t be taking part in this mission if there was any hint of favoritism among us two.”

“I… don’t know what to say,” I.M paused. “I’m sorry?”

Wonho waved off the reply. “It’s okay, no matter,” he said in a tone that clearly said otherwise. He turned back to the hologram.

“So here we are. The funny thing about humans is that, when you play them right, they become their own punishments.” The split-screen hologram merged into one scene as the two humans entered the same office building. 

“Even more efficient is this case where we get to play these two with each other,” Wonho paused, letting the demons observe the humans’ interactions. “Since the two already have a history, we will take one for each of us and bring them to the lowest emotional state that this mission calls for. After that, a simple nudge should take them past the karmic points goal.”

I.M leaned forward, peering into the humans’ minds. “Seems like both are nearly at their tipping points. This one,” I.M’s pointed finger prompted the shorter figure to come to the foreground, “his tenacity to bottle up harmful thoughts is going to be his biggest weapon against himself," I.M cocked his head, squinting at the flurry of restless activity beneath figure's calm demeanor. 

Wonho murmured in agreement. “He has a wavering mind. Not the type to hone in on one ugly thought for too long, unlike this other one,” Wonho remarked at the latter human, who had noticed the former walk in, leading to half a dozen expressions dancing over his face. “While his open nature prevents negative emotions from festering on the inside, he also allows for himself to be easily moldable.”

The more the two demons observed the humans, the more obvious it became on which demon was to take which human based on the demons’ own expertise.

“The fact that their negative karmic points are mostly a carryover from their previous lives,” I.M mused, “so that also gives us their self-pity as an easy playing card.”

“Oh is it now?” Wonho pretended not to be impressed. “I didn’t even bother to look into their past.”

I.M made a face at Wonho.

“So it’s settled then,” Wonho cleared the hologram, sweeping one client’s file over to I.M.

“You take Changkyun, and I’ll take Hoseok.”

 

 

☽☾

 

 

In terms of skillsets, I.M was a generalist, while Wonho was more of a specialist. Wonho had chosen one subject and dove deep, becoming something of a guru in the field of atypical depression. I.M, on the other hand, preferred to skim the surface of a cornucopia of fields, making him a prime choice for restless minds and anxiety. I.M was easy to adapt to a changing situation. And as for Wonho, pair him up with the right client and he could easily break the record for weekly per capita karmic points.

That’s why this specific duo was chosen for this mission, I.M figured out soon enough. With the two human clients being part of the same equation, both the demons’ expertise came into play.

I.M enjoyed torturing Changkyun. The way his mind constantly fluctuated forced Changkyun to dance to different tunes, with no boring moment in sight. And all the while, I.M kept true to his brand: Drop dark thoughts with no emotions, letting the client associate them to following thoughts like a rightly-played chess move. No unnecessary strings attached, that was I.M’s game.

 

 

 ☽☾

 

 

A days-old email sits in Changkyun’s inbox, making him nauseous at sight every time he opens the app.

From: Director Hyunwoo.  
Subject: RE: Promotion.

Changkyun closes out of his email and restlessly drums his knee, trying to latch onto the first distraction that pops into his head.

( _Consider the news, I.M quietly suggests in Changkyun's ear._ )

What a curiously morbid thing, turning towards other people's misery to forget one's own. Your worries, palpable or otherwise, dissolve in significance compared to a wake-up call that while the grass may be greener for some, it may well be lit up in constant hellfire for others.

( _Good boy. Now let's grow on that._ )

A bomb has killed dozens and ripped families apart in an already war-stricken country. A natural disaster devastated another economy into a spiraling recession. And even good news somehow had their goodness overshadowed by their rarity, with the happiness of the benefiting individuals exposing the cold hardness of reality.

Changkyun's stomach furls and unfurls repeatedly. It isn't the healthiest coping mechanism, reading the news. It doesn't solve anything other than temporarily providing a relief from his worries.

( _But you need that, unless you want to go back to being a self-absorbed narcissist?_ )

And so Changkyun continues scrolling.

But rather than tempering out the mind-numbing pinballs of emotions wracking in his head, it only adds a new flavor, courtesy of I.M: guilt.

What right does Changkyun have, falling head first into his own worries to this extent? How sensitive is he, to demand such royal treatment when others are suffering far more than him? When he could barely prevent the suffering of his own friend?

What makes Changkyun so damn special?

( _Another day, another successful dark thought harvested, I.M brushes off his shoulder._ )

 

 

☽☾

 

 

Mental torturing was a delicate art form. Simpler torture required no more than a single point of creation: sketch a thought here, a dream there, and all dots would eventually connect to a nice sum of karmic points. But deeper scars, now that’s where Wonho truly enjoyed himself. Deeper scars took longer to form. Make the scar deep enough, and you get to reap the benefits for a lifetime. Once a being is destroyed enough, even a wayward comment becomes torture.

Wonho had quite an ongoing collection of points still steadily trickling in from his previous missions. He could honestly retire and live a comfortable eternity with the accumulating interest, but he relished the challenge of torture. 

After years of tinkering with the scale of human sins, Wonho had learned that each being performs differently based on a few distinct criteria. But despite their differences, assembly line punishments worked the most efficiently in bringing down their sins balance. Give them a sour look from a stranger, a nagging headache, and add an email from your boss chastising your many lackings as the final touch and almost any human is bound to falter.

 

 

☽☾

 

 

Hoseok trudges through the packed walkway, his legs heavy below him. It's funny how crowds could energize your spirit but also suck the life out of you, all depending on your mood. And the past few days have been inundated with bad luck. Nothing terrible, but it's when all the little things add up and you just end up awfully tired in every sense of the word. He shakily gulps down a lump in his throat that had formed out of nowhere.

( _Wonho walks a few steps behind Hoseok, his thumbs lazily tucked into his belt buckle and happily humming to himself._ )

Hoseok keys into his studio apartment and methodically gets ready for bed, not caring that it is only a quarter past 8. He is nearing a breaking point and wants nothing more than to clear his mind of everything. But as he lies in bed, sleep refuses to play nice. Eventually, the dam crashes open and spirals him to a culmination of self-reflection and loathing, each thought a dagger he feels in his guts.

( _The demon steps back and watches the dominoes he carefully placed perform their magic._ )

I’ve just become a soulless cog in the corporate machine. And I’m not even an efficiently-working cog, but rather one that barely scrapes by.

I have no passion. I have no dedication. Try as I might, I just can’t seem to compete with everyone else.

I'm not adequate at my job, and I'm becoming even more unfit as new tasks are pushed onto me.

Every single employee who started with me has moved up higher, and yet here I still am. An embarrassment to even the one closest to me, and deservingly so.

I have no place here, but I have no place anywhere else, either. 

I am absolutely useless.

( _Pure poetry, my friend, Wonho blows a kiss at the trembling human._ )

 

 

☽☾

 

 

“And for our final trick, I become Hoseok.”

“Excuse me?”

“Hear me out,” Wonho paced about the office. “No, I couldn’t just waltz right into Hoseok’s shoes to get the last batch of karmic points.”

Wonho paused here for dramatic effect.

“Hoseok has to be completely eliminated from the equation.”

“You’re not thinking of-”

“No, we don’t kill him,” Wonho paced. “Killing our client, obviously, isn’t our prerogative if we had the smallest shred of respect for this job.”

“Naturally,” I.M scoffed. “It’s a cheap tactic.”

“And anyway, calling the Reaper at this stage won’t hurt Changkyun nearly enough to make up for the catastrophic loss of negative emotions from Hoseok.”

“Then what… oh. _Oh_ ,” I.M’s voice dropped to a whisper. He didn’t think he would get to see Wonho’s famous technique in action this mission.

 

 

☽☾

 

 

Partial corporeal materialization.

Or as humans call it, being possessed. While demons of other divisions could co-inhabit into a human body, the skill was not part of the mental demons’ training process. Complete thought control just wasn’t a requirement for the job description. They only needed to provide drops of thoughts, not floodwaters. And there were very few mental demons who trained independently and were also competent enough to actually implement the skill in practice.

I.M found it to be highly pointless and exhausting, opting for a more hands-free approach. But his partner had a different viewpoint.

“Are you sure this could work?” I.M looked nervously around the dimly-lit street for their clients to reach their agreed-upon location.

“You got to trust me on this, okay?” Wonho leaned back against a streetlamp, looking a bit too relaxed for the situation. “Now remember, I don’t expect the situation to get hairy enough for you to materialize-”

“Yes, that was never in the plan,” I.M nodded his head vigorously.

“-but like we discussed, please be prepared to feed your client with counter thoughts in response to mine.” Wonho suddenly stood up straight and stared at the night in steely resolve. “Now let’s finish this mission strong.”

 

 

☽☾

 

 

“Hoseok?”

“Changkyun, hey,” the dark form approaching him waves.

"Are you still wearing your costume from the office Halloween party?"

"No?" Hoseok stops momentarily, confused.

"Then what are those wings…” Changkyun trails off.

Hoseok freezes. He turns around, and is greeted with an empty sidewalk.

“Wait,” Changkyun blinks twice, and then forces a chuckle. “Nevermind, it must have been the shadows.”

Hoseok has always been an enigma to Changkyun. Unabashedly transparent, yet never fully comprehensible. He hesitates, trying to decipher the figure in front of him, trying to gauge his emotions, trying not to make the same mistakes again.

“Hoseok, I’ve decided,” Changkyun looks down, suddenly all too curious at his own hands clasped fervently in prayer.

“Go on, out with it,” a monotonous Hoseok responds. Not for the first time, Changkyun wishes the other didn’t wear his emotions on his sleeve. Changkyun wonders if he had made the right decision after all, or if he was simply being his classic selfish self.

( _I.M gently pushes Changkyun’s feeling of doubt back inside, bottled up._ )

“I’ve decided to take the offer.”

Hoseok wishes he were angry. His typically liquid anger was hard to be contained when provoked. He wants to scream and scream and scream. But he deserves no less than this, and so he feels emptiness.

“Of course. That’s the only step forward.”

Hoseok sees Changkyun’s eyes glaze over and tries again. “Changkyun, honestly, I am happy for you. I knew it wasn’t going to be me, and I blame nobody for it.” Nobody but himself. More than anything else, Hoseok wants to run away. He was ashamed at stealing the limelight from Changkyun’s moment to shine.

( _Hoseok couldn’t hide his self-pity and Wonho uses this moment to capitalize on that._ )

But Changkyun doesn’t want Hoseok to run away. During their entire time they had known each other, Changkyun would try and dig to take out Hoseok’s splinters, going nowhere but only hurting him even further. And this is why he had finally realized that leaving was the only way he couldn’t hurt Hoseok anymore.

( _Yet, you've just put Hoseok in even more pain, I.M offers. And Changkyun’s heart breaks._ )

“I’m sorry.”

Those words are something neither wanted to hear, for two entirely different contexts. To Changkyun, that is shameful surrender, a display of his inability to protect the most genuine person he had ever known.

To Hoseok, it is an affirmation that his failure in life was so apparent that even his closest confidante now pitied him. He attempts his hardest at a smile and his lips falter. Tears well up and fall but he looks away and laughs.

Changkyun immediately steps forward to wipe away the spilled tears.

Hoseok catches his arm. “Look, it’s fine,” he shakes his head. “I’m the one who should be sorry. I’m a mess!” Another fake laugh.

“I just didn’t think- I was wading still waters for so long-”

“No, it makes complete sense. You are young and successful and it would be ridiculous if I kept you from achieving your maximum potential.”

Changkyun has never felt so small in his life. Their relationship had been like a subway curving this way and that in the dark, with Hoseok blindly trusting his fate around the corner. And Changkyun is responsible for the eventual demise.

“Please, if there’s anything you ever need…”

“The only thing I need from you,” Hoseok cups Changkyun’s cheeks with a tearful smile, "is to shine your brightest."

With that, Hoseok softly kisses the other’s lips and walks away as quietly as he arrived. Changkyun had been an anchor of strength all this time for Hoseok. And now that anchor has dissolved, leaving Hoseok directionless and drifting.

A lone figure remains under the streetlamp, motionless.

 

 

☽☾

 

 

Back at Wonho’s office, I.M whooped, exuberant. “You were absolutely wicked.”

Wonho looked positively pleased at the reaction. “Aw, was I really?” he shrugged, brimming with pride.

“Man, I could feel Hoseok’s emotions there. He truly felt like a disaster.”

“You can’t cut yourself short,” Wonho laughed, the first time I.M had ever seen him. “It wouldn’t have worked if we both didn’t hold up our own sides equally. And I could feel Changkyun’s emotions enough to know you did your part simply beautifully.”

I.M nearly blushed.

Wonho cleared his throat. “I tripped up a bit at the beginning, though. Shouldn’t have let my guard down.”

“That was nothing,” I.M batted the confession away. “If anything, the wings added to Changkyun’s already confused feelings for Hoseok.”

Wonho exhaled in relief. “Good. Another mission, successfully completed.”

“You were fun to work with, kid-”

“I was spawned only two decades after you.”

“Anyway, kid. I had my doubts about you at first. Seeing your stats, I figured there’s no way someone could’ve racked up such high numbers without cutting corners.”

I.M clutched his chest in mock agony. “Me? What do I look like, a guardian angel?”

Wonho laughed again, and I.M realized he was getting addicted to that sound. “Imagine if those losers stopped scratching their asses and actually did their jobs.”

“And then they have the nerve to complain about us taking over humanity. Like the halo-totting dunces stand a chance.”

Wonho fondly looked over at the other demon smirking at himself and felt his protective urges soar. “You’re alright, kid. Now, time to meet with the old man and see what he has to say to me now.”

The two walked towards their superior’s office. On their way, I.M glanced over at Wonho and saw his fist tightly balled up at his side.

“I’m not supposed to tell you this,” I.M began, “but regardless of how Shownu sees you, the rest of the Division actually kinda idolizes you.” He gently nudged Wonho, who looked over, startled.

“You guys… idolize me?” a sly grin slowly formed on Wonho’s face.

“Whoa now, see this is exactly why nobody’s ever told you, Mr. Big Head.”

To which Mr. Big Head immediately put the other into a headlock for the rest of the way to their superior’s office.

 

 

☽☾

 

 

 “You took a gamble that could have cost this mission.”

“It might be a gamble to most, but unlike most, I knew what I was doing.”

Wonho winked at I.M, who winked back.

Shownu sighed. “I should reprimand you lot for taking a more complicated route than necessary. But the overall karmic points that the two of you harvested is quite something.”

He waved over his desk and a projection formed in midair, showing the points balance for each of the two clients. “With the rate of growth of their negativity, they’ll use up nearly all of their sins baggage from their previous reincarnations in just this life. And for that, I have to commend you two.”

I.M whistled at the projection while casually throwing his arm over Wonho’s shoulders.

Shownu looked at Wonho, smiling. “You proved me wrong about yourself, Wonho. And by doing that, you proved me right.” Wonho beamed.

“And I.M, you simply never cease to amaze.”

“I can’t help it, what can I say,” I.M grinned, his wings shimmering black.

“By the way,” Shownu casually glanced over at his desk, “aren't you forgetting something?” A large package stamped with “Deluxe Hellish Dark Chocolate Éclairs” materialized in front of the demons.

I.M’s eyes widened. “We get éclairs?”

Wonho took one look at I.M and immediately handed the package over to him. “You take the lot. They’re not my type, anyway.”

“Aw hell yeah!” I.M whistled, which was subsequently cut off as he strained under the heavy weight.

“…On second thought, let me carry this for you. Where’s your office?”

The smaller demon maneuvered the larger around, steering him out of the room.

“I didn’t say dismissed yet!” Shownu yelled out. “Fools,” he shook his head after he was alone in his office again. He reached into his desk drawer, took out another éclair, and patted himself on the back for his own job well done before digging in.

 

 


End file.
